The field of the invention relates generally to autoclaves, and more particularly, to optimizing an autoclave volume utilization for quality sensitive high performance composite component parts.
Composite materials have a wide variety of commercial and industrial uses, ranging from aircraft, automobile, turbines and computer parts. Composite materials have many advantages which make them attractive to different industries. For instance, composite materials can reduce heat transfer, resist conduction of electricity, are flexible but strong, and can be fairly easily formed into complex shapes during manufacturing. Some examples of commercial applications include the complex shapes of certain automobiles, airplanes, boats, and turbines which would be difficult to form with metal materials.
Curing high quality polymer matrix composite components in an autoclave is a common practice. An autoclave provides a curing temperature and high pressure capability to produce quality parts. However, an autoclave poses an inherent problem that the autoclave is controlled by one pressure, temperature and vacuum cycle. Due to thermal variations inside the autoclave, the curing of parts positioned at various locations in the autoclave may not be within quality requirements. Because of the non-uniform temperature in the autoclave, parts are generally are not positioned in areas of too low or high temperature which limits the amount of usable volume of the autoclave. In addition, the autoclave is typically run at a high temperature and high pressure, so that during the cure cycle it is not feasible to view or sense what's happening to the air flow very easily.